Day 19 – 23rd April 2007
“Bridgwater. we have a problem!”
So serious was deemed our problem that I was referred immediately to Robin Thorn himself. He said that on some very rare occasions, Rohloff hubs can shed bits of flange. He talked about short-term solutions and long-term solutions. I pointed out that I had superglued the hub back together, had managed to get a small amount of tension in the spoke, and in any case we had been riding on it for at least 100 miles since I noticed the buckle in the wheel, which I had managed to reduce considerably.
Robin had another solution: take the bike to a good, small bike shop where they know what they are doing and get Bicycle Repair man to drill another hole and fit an oversize spoke in place of the offending one. Robin himself would track down the said BRM, I would visit him en route, the repair would be done and everybody would live happily ever after.
Robin found the said BRM and after some faffing gave me his phone number. His name was Mike, he worked in The Bike Bothy in Brora and he was primed with what he had to do.
I phoned Mike. I was in Tain at the time (as everyone knows, Tain is the home of Glenmorangie whisky) and Brora is something like 20 miles along the Sutherland coast. Mike was quite reluctant to tackle the job. He felt, as I did, that the fact that the bike had done quite a few miles since the break occurred that my superglue was holding the spoke in place, even if it wasn’t doing all the work it was supposed to. The principle of “leave well alone” was quite a good one.
In my view, this whole issue puts a big question mark over Rohloff hubs. What does Robin Thorn mean when he talks about “very rare occasions”? How often does a hub break before a spoke? I have never come across this situation before. OK, our tandem has taken a good deal of punishment over the past 3 weeks in which we have done a fair amount of off-road. I think it was the Great Glen Way which caused the damage, no doubt aided and abetted by the enormous bulk of the riders. Pilot and stoker weigh more than 27 stones. Each rear pannier wiehs about 1.5 stones. That, on a rough surface, puts everything to the test and we clearly found Panaracer Pasela tyres to be inadequate for the work we wanted them to do, whereas the Schwalbe Marathon Plus seem equal to the task.
The bottom line is that Rohloff hubs, retailing at about £700 a throw, should not have a fundamental flaw in them. If something is to break, it should be something the rider can easily replace (eg a spoke) not something that could put the entire tour in jeopardy. I don’t think I could now take a Rohloff-equipped bike to Patagonia with any confidence.
But enough of Rohloffs and Superglue. Today’s ride began in Alness, and very soon the A9 was the be-all-and-end-all of our existence. It wasn’t as busy as many A roads in SE England, but the traffic came in waves and was fast. As often as we could, we rode to the left of the while line on the left of the carriageway, and mostly we had plenty of room there.
We had 11ses in Tain, and a very fine cake shop it was. We made for Golspie and at lunch time sat in the drizzle eating sardines straight out of the tin. We looked for a loo in Brora but decided not to trouble Mike the Bike in his Bothy, and held a Council of War in Helmsdale. We phoned the B & B, telling them that we still had about 16 miles to do (by this time it was 5.30) and that we would find food before we arrived.
I had suspected, the way the map showed the road as zig-zags, that it climbed in Helmsdale, but we were not prepared for the climb we had. It was monstrous. I was worried that the slow pace enforced upon us would mean that we would miss our meal. Up we went, further and further, with marvellously spectacular views out to sea and along ravines. We reached a summit of sorts, allowing some descent, but then climbed again. Then we reached Berriedale.
I had been warned by the guy selling ferry tickets at Ardrossan, himself a Helmsdale man, that the hill into Berriedale was spectacular. So it was, but I didn’t want to give the tandem its head with the rear wheel problem and in any case, I would have been held up by a coach, whose brakes were doing such hard work on the descent that the tyres smelt as though they were on fire. Even so, we reached over 40mph.
The hill north of Berriedale is not such a git as the Helmsdale climb, being much shorter, but it takes you right to the top of Caithness and from that point it is a glorious fast run all the way into Dunbeath.
We stopped at the Inver Hotel, where food was still being served, but just to us, or so it seemed. There was one other couple for a brief while, but thereafter we had the place to ourselves. The view across the bay was most dramatic.
Toremore, our B & B, was only about half a mile up the hill from the restaurant, so we were soon bathed, in bed, and ready for the final day of this epic adventure.